SANTA MARIA — Community leaders are joining the Santa Maria Fire Department this weekend for a new event called "On Duty with SMFD."
The event gives participants a taste of what it is like to be a firefighter and experience the challenges they face by working through scenarios inspired by real calls the department has responded to.
"So tomorrow it's going to be an all-day event where the participants are going to be experiencing a number of first-time events ever in their life," said Andrew Klein with the Santa Maria Fire Department.
During the event, Klein said participants will wear full firefighter gear and use specialized equipment to work through real-life emergency scenarios, including rope rescue and using the Jaws of Life.
"They're going to be putting people on a rope for the first time and they're going to be rappelled down by a rope system," Klein said. "So the emphasis on that is trust, teamwork and also specialized training."
Klein hopes the event will highlight the station's needs.
"This is really going to demonstrate the need for proper staffing for our fire apparatus, but also emphasize teamwork and to be able to triage the problem and to aggressively treat patients for the best outcome for survival for them," Klein said.
In preparation for tomorrow's event, the group met tonight for a welcome dinner. Participants went over the department's divisions, emergency medical procedures, and they were issued gear.
